She joined KOMO in June 1980, after the eruption of Mount St. Helens and did many special newscasts thereafter, including the fall of the Berlin Wall (she was the first local American TV news reporter to do so).

However, she changed her career goals after witnessing a dog necropsy, and then aspired to become a journalist, enrolling at Washington State University.

In 2005, Goertzen and co-anchor Dan Lewis became the longest-running network affiliate news team in the United States west of the Mississippi River.

On December 1, 1998, KOMO announced that Goertzen had been suffering from a type of meningioma, a noncancerous tumor that grows on the brainstem that affects speech and the ability to swallow.

The announcement led to many longtime KOMO viewers pouring out support, wishing for a speedy recovery.

The surgery "went better than expected"[5] on April 3, and after spending several months on an experimental chemotherapy drug used to fight kidney cancer (with high levels of success), it was announced on August 14 that Goertzen would resume anchor duties alongside Dan Lewis on September 2, 2008.

[7] After a number of surgeries to remove the tumor, and five months off television, Goertzen returned to KOMO-TV on Monday, February 16, 2009.

During a surgery that lasted ten hours, doctors reported that they were going to be more aggressive and remove the entire tumor.

Kathi Goertzen died on August 13, 2012, of pneumonia, a complication of her long battle with recurring meningiomas.